 |
History |
The history of S.R. 9 is largely shared with U.S. 19. U.S. 19 joined the route in 1930 and was largely removed from the route on July 1, 1981. Today, S.R. 9 completely follows U.S. 19 in Atlanta, but from I-285 northward, the route is largely split from U.S. 19 up to where they rejoin from Dahlonega to the Turners Corner community at U.S. 129. Originally, however, aside from overlapping U.S. 19, the most routing changes to occur along the route were primarily in Atlanta. Aside from S.R. 9E and present-day S.R. 9 Business, S.R. 9 also had one short-lived banner route, S.R. 9 Connector, which will be included in this page. The original master plan for S.R. 9 did not deviate even in the slightest from the route of today in its intent to extend from S.R. 11 north of Dahlonega into Atlanta. In Atlanta, this route once extended slightly further south to end at Luckie St. where U.S. 41 and S.R. 3E, later simply S.R. 3E joined Spring St. This complex history inside I-285 is discussed below HISTORY OF S.R. 9 IN ATLANTA
S.R. 9 in Atlanta was far less complicated in earlier times. The streets in Atlanta were not as broken and plagued with one-way routes as today, and the route of U.S. 19 and S.R. 9 into Atlanta was a two-way road instead of the series of one-ways found today. In fact, where Spring St and Peachtree St split, U.S. 19 and S.R. 9 simply turned south along Spring St down into downtown Atlanta where S.R. 9 ended at Walton St. (S.R. 3E). S.R. 3E took over the remainder of the route to where U.S. 19 joins U.S. 41 and U.S. 29 split off, which was also the northern end of S.R. 14. A few road improvements occurred along the route between I-85 and I-285. These all came during the early days of suburbanization. The Roswell Road portion between S.R. 141 (Peachtree Rd) and I-285 was widened to four lanes in 1961.
In 1973, S.R. 9 was given a more grand terminus when it was extended in Atlanta from its intersection at Luckie St. eastward over to Moreland Avenue (U.S. 23/S.R. 42) through the Inman Park neighborhood. This extension brought the highway through the campus of Georgia State University and by the MLK Historic Site as well as providing an additional business route into downtown Atlanta. The extension was complicated, however. It included a series of streets and turns that included Auburn Avenue (which ends into Luckie St), a small portion of Butler St (now Jesse Hill Jr Dr), Edgewood Avenue and Euclid Avenue. This route also created an interesting scenario that apparently resulted in a very short extension of S.R. 14 along Luckie St. While this route had merit for its many important sites along route, it was a questionably necessary city route that did not survive past 1983. The cause of the decommissioning of the East Atlanta route of S.R. 9 was that S.R. 9 was dualized from downtown to Buckhead, taking precedence over the 1973 extension. What had previously been a simple route entirely on Spring St was replaced with U.S. 19/S.R. 9 south on Spring St. and U.S. 19/S.R. 9 northbound on West Peachtree St. This extension was partly necessitated by the rebuilding of the interchange and ramps at Williams St over the Downtown Connector (I-75/85). Techwood Drive was also extended to facilitate the southbound one-way with West Peachtree St also relocated to join Spring St directly where it crosses the Downtown Connector. The previous location of the West Peachtree St. bridge was closed and demolished for MARTA, and the early 80's MARTA construction appears to contributed to this project.
When this dualization as complete, S.R. 9 south was relocated along Walton St. so as to make all of U.S. 19 south of there along Spring St onto Whitehall part of S.R. 9. Since S.R. 3E was also decommissioned along Luckie St. at the same time, S.R. 9 was then extended south to end at U.S. 41/S.R. 3 south of downtown at Northside Drive. This complicated scenario was far from final. While Atlanta has a glut of state highways within its borders, most state highways were removed from the heart of the city during the 1980's while the interstates were being rebuilt and I-85 was relocated north of downtown. This resulted in a clustering of U.S. highways west of the city and a truncation of S.R. 9 to 14th Street in 1985. This new route truncated the one-way pair to north of 14th Street with the remainder following 14th Street west to U.S. 41 (Northside Drive), which remains as such today. Where 14th Street joins Northside Drive is today the southern end of S.R. 9. S.R. 9 OUTSIDE OF ATLANTA North of Atlanta, progress did not result in any new routings. However, it did result in several widening projects. With exception to downtown Roswell and north of S.R. 120, all of S.R. 9 was four-laned while it was still U.S. 19 from its original two-lane road. The first widening project occured in Sandy Springs in 1965, replacing the two-lane road from I-285 to just north of the Chattahoochee River. The 1928 bridge over the river was sandwiched to include two lanes in each direction in that project. In 1980, widening was extended north of Roswell up to State Bridge Rd (S.R. 120, now Old Milton Pkwy). Following both projects was extensive urbanization of Sandy Springs and suburbanization of Roswell, including a small shopping mall, office parks and restaurants between Roswell and downtown Alpharetta. In Forsyth and Dawson Counties, the highway saw significant upgrading in 1955 from its original completed paving in 1930, but otherwise remained an unaltered two-lane highway from then on. The Big Creek culvert, which replaced a bridge in 1975, was the only significant project to take place along that route. This also held true for Lumpkin County south of downtown Dahlonega. North of Dahlonega, much of the original route has seen few improvements since it was completed in 1929. This comes with exception to the replacement of the Yahoola Creek bridge in 1973 north of Dahlonega on what is now S.R. 60 Business and the widening of the Chestatee River bridge in 1987. Otherwise, no significant upgrades were made, and the highway remains a winding mountain road in this area. As previously mentioned, July 1, 1981 was a significant day for S.R. 9. This was when the majority of the highway regained independence of U.S. 19 from I-285 north to Dahlonega. This was because U.S. 19 was relocated to completed S.R. 400. In 1991, S.R. 9 was relocated along part of S.R. 52 to the newly completed by-pass connecting S.R. 52 to U.S. 19 north of Dahlonega. This road was the connection and upgrade of previously existing Pine Tree Drive, Wimpy Mill Road and Cavender Creek Road. By 1993, the Dahlonega By-Pass was extended completed south of S.R. 52, resulting in the relocation of S.R. 9 along with S.R. 52 south of the city. This 1993 relocation resulted in the creation of S.R. 9 Business along the former route in addition to S.R. 52 Business.
S.R. 9 CONNECTOR IN ROSWELL When the first section of S.R. 400 was completed up to Alpharetta in 1970, a portion of Holcomb Bridge Road was added to the state highway system. Originally, Holcomb Bridge Road was a county road and not part of any highway. S.R. 9 Connector was created to provide Roswell state highway access to the new S.R. 400, which was now by-passed to the east by the new freeway.
Practical at the time, it soon became apparent that S.R. 140 could be rerouted to connect almost directly to S.R. 9 Connector. In 1977, S.R. 140 was moved to Houze Rd from Crabapple Rd, ending within a half mile of S.R. 9 Connector in front of Roswell Mall. On June 9, 1981, S.R. 140 was then extended east along S.R. 9 Connector to S.R. 400, resulting in the decommissioning of S.R. 9 Connector. ADDITIONAL MAPS S.R. 9 MAIN PAGE, PHOTOS AND SUPPLEMENTARY ROUTES |
